Yes, placements at work centres represent required learning to professionally perform high-level preventive duties. This is why the curriculum for the Master's in Occupational Health (Occupational Hazard Prevention) at the University of the Balearic Islands includes mandatory face-to-face external curricular placements on subject 10129 Professional Placements, worth eight ECTS credits that are equivalent to 200 total hours of work for students.

Although any new student may formally self-register for this subject from day one, they are recommended to enrol for placements via the registration extension procedure once they have passed all subjects in the common mandatory block and have taken or are taking a specialised elective subject.

Where applicable, students may contact the Support for People with Special Needs Office oficinasuport@uib.es to process - in the strictest confidentiality - the relevant recommendations for undertaking external professional placements.

All master's students must observe the performance of different high-level prevention activities at a work centre in the fields of health and safety in the workplace, ergonomics, psychosociology applied to occupational hazard prevention, industrial health and safety, health monitoring, prevention management, preventive training activities, relations with the Health and Safety Committee and the prevention officers, etc. and, wherever possible as per the specialisation taken, participate in said activities under the supervision and guidance of one or several senior technicians in occupational hazard prevention who are actively performing their job at said work centre.

During the agreed placement period, all students must accompany the technicians throughout their working day to learn directly how the different tasks of a prevention service are carried out, how prevention procedures and controls are implemented, and how detected hazards are managed. In turn, as a cross-cutting skill, they need to understand that any professional activity must be done in respect of fundamental rights, gender equality, the principle of universal accessibility and design for all, and environmental protection, in accordance with the values inherent to a culture of peace and democratic values.

Student workload for the professional placement subject is set at 200 hours (eight ECTS credits), of which 150 or more must be face-to-face at the company and the rest be dedicated to independent learning.

As a general rule, the placement period may run from the date when the first self-registration period is active for the academic year up to 31^st August of the following year. Depending on the availability of the company's technicians, the most suitable period shall be set for each student and between three and seven effective hours per working day shall be agreed, totalling a minimum of 150 face-to-face hours that do not necessarily need to run consecutively. In this sense, students may undertake several placement periods throughout the academic year that may also run at different companies.

The professional placements on the master's programme may be undertaken at the prevention department of any private company or public institution based in any town and in any country. The sole requirement is for said entity to have signed an open-ended educational cooperation agreement with the university beforehand.

The list of collaborating entities with the UIB for external placements can be viewed on the website of the Careers Guidance and Placement Department at the University-Enterprise Foundation: https://fueib.org/es/doip/286/convenio_doip.

Of course! If the selected firm is not yet on the list of collaborating entities at the university, you may contact the Centre for Postgraduate Studies and provide them with the name and e-mail of a contact person at said company. The UIB has a generic agreement template for external curricular and extracurricular placements for undergraduate and postgraduate students on official and UIB-specific programmes, which can be agreed with any private firm or public institution that interests master's students.

The request should be processed as soon as possible since the admin procedure for signing an agreement takes time. In this vein, students are recommended to delay registering for subject 10129 Professional Placements until there is a verified valid cooperation agreement with the host entity.

So that the organisation and performance of external placements represent the lowest possible financial burden, each student must initiate contact with a senior occupational hazard prevention officer who is in active service at a public or private institution of his/her choice, whether by geographical proximity, economic sector, prior knowledge, etc. and propose a placement period under their supervision as long as this complies with the established academic requirements.

The Careers Guidance and Placement Department at the University-Enterprise Foundation at the UIB offers free advice to master's students to find placement centres and/or improve their career prospects. For a face-to-face, telephone or online interview with the service, please write to: fuedoip@uib.es

Yes. Different technicians at the host entity may supervise the student's work during the placement period. Nonetheless, the placement coordinator must formally be a single person who will be named in the documents as 'company tutor'. As for the university, placement monitoring shall be done by the academic tutor assigned by the Master's Management Team.

Placements are, by nature, for training and therefore do not imply an employment relationship or financial reward. For this reason, general regulations prohibit doing placements at a company or institution that you have a contractual relationship with. With regard to multinationals, institutions with different work centres or certain, duly justified, exceptional circumstances, placements at entities where students are employed may be authorised if there is a commitment to clearly differentiate the master's placement from the student's normal job activity.

Bearing in mind that master's placements are not compensated, the university shall, where regulations so stipulate, cover the cost of incorporating students into the social security system as per the terms set out in additional provision five of Royal Decree-Law 28/2018 of 28^th December pertaining to increasing public pensions and other urgent measures in social, labour and employment matters.

Article 13.5 of Organic Law 1/1996 on the Legal Protection of Minors sets out as a requirement to access activities involving frequent contact with minors not having been sentenced for any crime against personal freedom or sexual identity, including sexual assault or abuse, exhibitionism and sexual enticement, prostitution and sexual exploitation, and corruption of minors, as well as human trafficking.

Therefore, if the business of the selected company for placements on the Master's in Occupational Health could involve frequent interaction with minors, all students shall accredit compliance with the aforementioned provision by providing the CEP with a certificate proving they are not on the sex offenders register via the following link: http://postgrau.uib.es/certificado_delitos_sexuales, before the start of the placement. This certificate can be obtained from the Ministry of Justice website.

The specific placement plan for each student is formalised in Appendix 2B (master's curricular placement) in the agreement.

In order to process said appendix, all students must carry out a task on Aula Digital to provide the basic details of the proposal to their academic tutor. When the latter has confirmed the plan with the tutor, the Centre for Postgraduate Studies will provide the text for Appendix 2B to the student (as first signatory) via electronic procedure, to the company tutor (second signatory) and to the academic tutor (third signatory), as well as to the CEP director (fourth and final signatory). Finally, the CEP will send the appendix with the four signatures to the student and the collaborating entity.

Once all parties have received the signed appendix, students may join the company on the date agreed in the placement plan. They shall comply with the stipulated timetable, respect the operating regulations at the collaborating entity (including the dress code), fulfil the agreed activities diligently and show, at all times, a respectful attitude towards the entity's and university's policies. They shall also ensure confidentiality and professional secrecy with regard to internal information from the entity and its activities both during and after the placement period.

Assessment for subject 10129 Professional Placements is performed in line with the specific guidelines set out in the study plan, which may be viewed in the course guide. The mark for the subject shall be awarded by the academic tutor at the university.

The planned assessment elements are: the final report issued by the tutor at the company, the final report written by the student and any other monitoring indicators that the academic tutor deems suitable.

Performance of the placement and submission of the report are set out in the course guide as 'non-recoverable' assessment activities, meaning there can be no resit mark for the same academic year.

Where students are unable to complete the placement satisfactorily in the same academic year, they may formalise a new proposal for the following year with the option to change company and, therefore, tutor.

Where required and/or requested, company tutors and students may make a face-to-face, telephone or online appointment with the academic tutor to resolve any issues, notify any incident that has occurred or simple to keep in contact.

Any visits to the placement centre that the academic tutor deems appropriate shall be arranged beforehand by e-mail.